Between Realities - Book 2 - An Absence Of Dragons
by Dragonsight Elli
Summary: Divergence - where the future changes direction because of a singularly important decision. For Admiral Paul Benden and the colonists of Pern, their very survival was now in jeopardy. Why? Because Kitt Ping, the human biogeneticist taught by the Eridani themselves, had chosen to devote her time developing zebedees to battle the scourge of Thread. Check it out!


Between Realities - Book 2 – An Absence Of Dragons Prologue - AL, 8 - Aftermath of the First Fall

"We'll just have to take the engines out of the spaceships and use them to destroy the eccentric planet," said Admiral Paul Benden. "That way, we'll be rid of the menace forever."

"But if it comes out of the Oort Cloud," argued Governor Emily Boll, "how will we get rid of that?"

"Destroy the Oort Cloud," Paul replied, "or infest it with predatory parasites to rid it of any life forms. Thankfully, Kitti Ping Yung has been developing bacteriophages so that we can destroy any parasitic life forms that happen to invade the planet's surface. She has been doing this for the past eight turns so that we would be prepared for an invasion like this. We deposit the parasites into the Oort Cloud then use the antimatter engines to destroy the eccentric planet."

"I still don't understand why she's been genetically engineering these zebedees when we had no idea that this would happen," Emily muttered.

"Just in case," Paul replied. "We don't want to be surprised by another invasion, do we?"

"We just were!" Emily cried. "Can we count on Kenjo Fusaiyuki to pilot the Mariposa for this errand?"

"He's a competent pilot," Paul mused, glancing out the window, "but I want to be the one who gets rid of this menace for good! Kenjo can be my copilot on this mission. I'll need help transporting the engines."

"Catapults?" Emily suggested.

"We don't have one heavy enough," Paul sighed. "We'll have to depend on multiple catapults to lift those engines."

When the deed was done, Paul flew another shuttle to the Oort Cloud to infect the ovoids that would later become Thread when they hit Pern's atmosphere. With their shields on high destruct mode, they were able to keep the flames of the Oort Cloud at bay. They had taken the bacteriophages and created a bomb out of them and placed it within the roiling mass of fire where millions upon millions of ovoids writhed within the flames. The bomb would explode within minutes of Paul and Kenjo's departure. Watching the explosion, there was a collective sigh of relief among the remaining colonists. The Thread would never attack them again. They would live their lives in peace and comfort. Now all they would have to worry about were the volcanoes near Landing. If they erupted, as Patrice was hinting that they might, they would have to leave the Southern Continent for a while until the volcanic ash subsided. If Garben blew its top, the ash would cover most of the Southern Continent. They did not want to live in caves, but they would see what little resources they had to make more fuel for the stone cutters and carve out dwellings for themselves. In fact, Paul thought, they'd better get going on that now before the volcanoes erupted, so that they wouldn't have to leave so much behind. They cleaned out the Catherine Caves of all the computer components and packed them on sleds and ships. Then they started ferrying people north...

Chapter 1 – The Anomaly (Dana's P.O.V.)

"Have you heard the latest complaint?" Kara asked me as she stepped into my office.

Chuckling, I nodded. "The Abominators."

"You'd think they'd be satisfied that their exile was ended, thanks to you," Kara sighed, shaking her head.

"And how do you feel about it?" I wondered, looking up. "The end of the exile, I mean."

"You helped me find the truth, Dana," Kara said, coming up to lay her hand over mine. "Ultimately, you showed the Dragonriders that abandoning the Exiles to the ravages of Thread very nearly cost everyone their lives. I know I'm grateful to you for all the trouble you went through to bring that crisis to an end. And many of those from my village have also expressed their thanks."

"And yet, there are still those who desperately cling to the old ways," I sighed, leaning back in my chair and rubbing my tired eyes. "They fear change and are unwilling to consider new ideas or ways of doing things."

"Just like the Oldtimers," Kara muttered, looking away.

"People are people, Kara," I told her, smiling as I did. "Some just get set in their ways and don't want to change. Others are willing to consider new possibilities and new experiences. Not all Oldtimers were bad."

"And some in this present Pass would want to roll back all the progress we've made," Kara muttered, tears coming to her eyes. "They would rather abandon all the new technology that has made our lives so much more comfortable. They would turn their backs on all the medical advances you have brought to Pern. How many lives would've been lost if not for your coming here?"

"We can 'what if' our situation till we're blue in the face," I chuckled, smiling at the Eastern Islands Weyrwoman.

"Oh! Before I forget!" she exclaimed, suddenly remembering the reason for her visit. "I was working one of AIVAS' training classes in the operation of this hand scanner!"

She withdrew the familiar device from her belt holster and showed it to me.

"I was using this in the area around my village," she explained, turning the device on, "when I picked up something strange."

"Strange?" I wondered, rising to join her. "How?"

"Well, I was doing a routine check of the walkie-talkies and the repeater stations we had positioned about the island," she explained, pulling the scan up on the display, "when I came across an anomaly."

Eyebrows rising, I asked, "Anomaly? Why do you call it that?"

"This thing picked up what appeared to be transmissions coming from this location here," Kara explained, indicating the spot on the screen. "It wasn't where we had set up any of the repeaters, so I went to investigate. When I got there, I found nothing but an empty clearing!"

"And?" I prodded.

"That's just it!" Kara sighed, throwing her hands up in the air. "There was nothing in the clearing, but the damned thing kept showing the transmissions coming from there."

"That is strange," I mused, double-checking the settings on the scanner. "Seems to be in working order. We'd better go take another look."

Kara and I astride our queen dragons popped out of _between_ directly over the spot indicated on Kara's device. As we circled in to land, something in the clearing caught my eye, so I signaled for Kara to land. As we backwinged to a gentle touchdown, I unhooked my riding belt, sliding down Tarnaa's side. Kara quickly joined me.

"Do you see it?" I asked, pointing to the center of the clearing.

"See what?" Kara wondered, straining to see whatever it was I had picked up on.

"A kind of shimmering in the air… right there!" I pointed, drawing closer.

"I don't see a thing!" Kara responded, coming up beside me. "Might be something to do with your dragon eyes. I don't see a damned thing."

Nearly two meters high and a meter wide, the transmissions… whatever they were… were coming from there.

"Wait a sec," I murmured, adjusting the scanner controls. "I recognize this."

"What is it?" Kara wondered, looking over my shoulder.

"5.6 Gigahertz, encrypted,…" I muttered, feverishly working the controls. "Holy shit!"

"What?" Kara asked, concerned.

"This is FSP ship-to-ship communications!" I gasped.

Punching a few more controls, audio could now be heard coming from the scanner in words clearly understood!

"First wing, veer left! Threadfall sighted!"

"Roger, lead! We're on it!"

"Second wing, climb! We've got to keep that shit from reaching the ground!"

"Copy that, Lead! All sleds, on me!"

"Threadfall?!" Kara gasped. "What by the First Egg…"

"Someone is fighting Thread," I groaned, more than a little disturbed by this revelation, "and they're doing it without dragons!"

"That's… that's impossible!" Kara exclaimed, clearly disbelieving. "The Ancients didn't have the equipment to fight Thread, even with their advanced technology!"

I reached my hand toward the shimmering… and gasped as my hand seemed to disappear!

"Dana!" Kara exclaimed, yanking me back.

She heaved a sigh of relief as my missing hand rematerialized.

"Thank the Egg!" Kara sighed, clearly relieved. "What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

"My hand's okay, Kara," I assured her, holding it up for her to see. "I want to try something. Give me your hand."

"What?!" she exclaimed, recoiling away. "What are you going to do?"

"I think what we have here, Kara, is a dimensional rift," I explained, once more poking my hand through the shimmering. "A doorway to a different dimension."

"Wait! You mean, like when we ride our dragons between here and Elli's dimension?!" she gasped.

I nodded.

"I want to take a peek through it," I told her, once more extending my hand. "I'd like you to anchor me on this side while I do."

"You're crazy, you know that?" she complained, reluctantly extending her hand. "And I'm just as bad for going along with it."

Smiling, I took her hand, then, after taking a steadying breath, I stuck my foot through the rift to check for solid ground.

"Well?" Kara asked.

"Feels solid," I noted, stomping my foot just to be sure. "Okay, here goes."

Drawing one more steadying breath, I eased myself through the rift.

And emerged right in the middle of total chaos! I had to cover my ear with my free hand against the roar of engines filling the air. The sky overhead was that characteristic dark color of Threadfall. And just above me was the source of the noise… a sky filled with FSP sleds and shuttles. It didn't take me long to see the discrepancies. These vehicles were equipped with protuberances… like gun barrels. And they were spouting flames from those barrels!

"Admiral! Admiral!"

I'd forgotten to turn the scanner off! It was still receiving the ship-to-ship comm!

"Benden here!" I heard, the sound of that voice nearly stopping my heart.

"By my ancestors!" I hissed.

There was no mistake. I'd heard that voice countless times during all the video playbacks of the Nathi attacks we'd studied at the Academy. That voice belonged to Admiral Paul Benden!

Recoiling in shock, I stumbled back through the rift, collapsing at Kara's feet.

"Dana!" Kara exclaimed, frightened by my sudden pallor. "What's wrong? What did you see?"

"The impossible," I whispered, trembling all over.

"What do you mean?" Kara wondered, helping me to my shaky feet.

"I saw the Ancients…" I whispered, unable to control my trembling. "They were fighting Thread… and they weren't using dragons!"

"That's not possible!" Kara exclaimed. "Every record we have… even the AIVAS files… show that they couldn't sustain the battle with their technology. They were forced to bioengineer the dragons from their smaller fire-lizard cousins."

"I know it sounds crazy," I muttered, shaking my head, "but I forgot to turn off the scanner before I stepped through. I heard some of the radio transmissions… and I recognized the voice of the leader… Admiral Paul Benden!"

"What?!" Kara gasped, wide-eyed with fright.

What did it all mean? An alternate reality where Admiral Benden was still alive? What about the rift we had discovered? Did it somehow bridge dimensional time and space back to the days the Ancients first arrived on Pern? And yet, it was possible. Meeting Elli's people was proof of that. So what caused the rift? Why was it here? And, most importantly, where were their dragons?

Chapter 2 - A Plan Of Attack (Elli's P.O.V.)

_Tarnaa comes_, Chlorith informed me as I oiled her patchy hide.

I had decided to take the whole day and spend it solely with my dragon. I hadn't been doing that lately, and I thought Chlorith might have been sad about it, so we were taking the day off from everyone else. I had told Dana that I wanted to spend today with Chlorith, so why was she coming now and invading my time with her?

_I do not mind_, Chlorith said, a smile in her voice. _Tarnaa has some interesting news for us._

"I mind!" I thundered. "I don't want you to feel neglected or sad because I wasn't taking a day solely for you."

_It's all right_, Chlorith soothed me. _She's very shaken up. That means you get to do your all-time favorite thing in the world._

I turned to see, (through Chlorith's eyes), Dana and Kara shakily dismounting their dragons. Something was very wrong, and I needed to postpone my day with Chlorith for another time. I needed to wash up though. I was full of oil.

"What's the matter?" I asked as gently as I could.

"I'm sorry to take you away from Chlorith today," Dana apologized; "but something's come up that I think you need to see."

She sounded as though she was weeping. Forgetting about the oil, I moved to put my arms around her.

"What's up?" I asked, pulling her head down to my shoulder and letting her give in to her tears.

"We discovered another rift," Kara said, her voice trembling, but not yet tearful. "There must be a massive temporal disturbance as well, because we heard Admiral Paul Benden's voice over our scanner, and they were fighting Thread without the use of dragons."

"That's impossible!" I cried, doing a kind of two step with Dana to calm her down. "They didn't have the technology to fight Thread without the dragons."

"Apparently they do in this reality," explained Kara. "Dana says the vehicles they used were FSP sleds and shuttles with barrels sticking out of them that produced flame. We were thinking maybe we could meet with them, discreetly, at first, and introduce them to our dragons. Then, maybe, if they're agreeable, we can introduce dragons into their reality so that they don't have to burn up so much fuel and power packs, and they can introduce us to the method of manufacturing power packs for our sleds."

"Whose Weyrleaders should we bring to introduce them?" I asked. "I mean, if we bring everyone from both dimensions, we'd have two F'lars, two Lessa's, two Brekke's, ... In short, we'd have two of everyone except Moreta, because you haven't rescued her yet in your reality."

"That's true," Dana managed to say, struggling to control her heart-wrenching sobs.

"I'm sorry," she continued, sniffing back her tears. "Admiral Paul Benden is my hero, just as Moreta is Chlorith's. I never thought to see him alive. We learned all about Admiral Benden in our academy training — how he was the hero of the Nathi Wars and how he was lost on the expedition to Pern. We thought it was a tragic failure and all records of the expedition were hidden. I had to go through a whole lot of red tape to get to them, and, of course, they were incomplete, because the colonists did survive and brought forth descendants."

She collapsed against me, her tears falling on my neck.

"Why don't we go there first," I suggested, "and tell him about the rift that separates dimensions. If he sees fit, we could introduce him to the Weyrleaders and Craftmasters and Lord Holders. They most definitely need dragons. They can definitely keep their technology alive, but they're gonna burn out all their resources if they keep fighting Thread the way they are."

"I think that's a good idea," Kara agreed, speaking for both herself and Dana, as the latter's sobs would not permit speech.

"I think she should calm down first," I said. "I don't think you want to meet the Admiral in the state you're in now, do you?"

I sat down with her on the oily ground at Chlorith's feet, Tarnaa crooning encouragement now, as Dana wept herself out on my shoulder. Exhausted but eager to get on with the plan, she shakily pulled away from me and mounted Tarnaa. Kara mounted her dragon and I mounted Chlorith.

"Where do we go from here?" I asked.

Kara gave our dragons the image, and we transferred _between_.

Chapter 3 – No Accident (Dana's P.O.V.)

I had once said that my life on Pern would never be dull. Now that statement was proving almost prophetic. The existence of the rift was already problematic… a link back in time to a Pern where Admiral Paul Benden was still alive! But it was also a Pern different than the history of my reality… or Elli's. From my own personal observations, there appeared to be no dragons in this Admiral Benden's timeline. At what point had their reality diverged from the one we knew? Why were there no dragons? More importantly, could they sustain the fight with Thread using just their shuttles and sleds? Most important of all, did we have the right to meddle with their reality?

The answer to that question was taken out of our hands the moment we returned to Kara's island home back in my timeline. Someone was standing in the clearing as we approached to land… a person I instantly recognized as Admiral Paul Benden!

"Oh, Shards!" I muttered.

Startled by our approach, I watched Admiral Benden stagger backwards… vanishing back through the rift.

"Was that…" Elli gasped as we landed.

I nodded, undoing my riding belt and sliding down Tarnaa's side.

"What'll we do now?" Kara wondered, joining me and Elli.

"Good question," I muttered, shaking my head.

On the other side of the rift, someone was helping pick Paul Benden up off the ground.

"Admiral!" Kenjo Fusaiyuki exclaimed. "What happened?"

"I wish the hell I knew, Kenjo!" Admiral Benden replied, still a bit shaken by the experience. "One minute I'm here… the next I'm in some sort of tropical location." Turning to his companion, seizing him by the arm, he told him, "There are people there… humans like us."

"What?!" Kenjo gasped.

"And they were riding…"

"Riding what?"

"Dragons!" Paul Benden whispered. "They were riding dragons!"

"Dragons?! Are you serious?!"

"I don't know how else to describe what I saw!" the Admiral muttered, shaking his head.

"How is this possible?" Kenjo wondered aloud. Gathering his wits, he asked, "So what do we do now?"

On the other side of the rift, different questions were being asked.

"How can they fight Thread without dragons?" Kara wondered. "All of AIVAS history files reported they couldn't sustain their technology on such a primitive world."

_Why don't we just ask them?_ Chlorith suggested, eyeing the rift closely.

"Now there's an idea!" Elli cheered, sharing her dragon's excitement.

"Dana?" It was Kara, coming up to lay a hand on my arm. "You look worried. What's wrong?"

"Their timeline," I whispered, inexplicably trembling. "What if it's somehow connected to ours?"

"What?!" Elli gasped, spinning to face me.

"Think about it," I told them. "Admiral Benden existed nearly 2500 Turns ago. Now, we suddenly have a bridge back to his time. If we inadvertently alter his timeline, it could destroy ours!"

"By the First Egg!" Kara hissed, her face turning pale.

"What'll we do?" Elli asked, suddenly unsure.

We got our answer the moment Admiral Benden walked back through the rift. Unsettled by my timeline concerns, Elli and Kara froze in place.

"You!" Paul Benden exclaimed, pointing straight at me. "You're the one I saw! Popped out of nowhere on that field in the middle of Threadfall then poofed back out of sight!"

To my companions' consternations, I inexplicably started chuckling.

"What the hell's so funny?" Elli hissed, seizing my arm.

Patting her hand, I smiled, saying, "Let me handle this."

I marched right up to Admiral Benden, snapped him a sharp salute, adding, "Sir!"

Caught momentarily off-guard, Paul Benden returned the salute, before saying, "What's so funny, Mister?"

"I'm beginning to understand how you earned the nickname, 'Hawkeye'… sir," I replied, finishing my salute. "You must have hawk eyes to have spotted me, even briefly, amidst all that confusion. It's an honor and a privilege to meet you, Admiral Benden."

"You got a name?" he demanded.

"Aye, sir," I responded. "Dana Sterling, former first contact team lead with the FSP Star Service."

"Star Service?" he pondered, looking confused. "Not familiar with that branch."

"Not surprising, Sir," I explained, treading carefully. "You and the other 6000 colonists left Earth nearly 2500 years ago on your journey to Pern."

"2500…" he stammered, suddenly glancing about. "Where the hell am I?"

"We are standing on one of the islands in the Eastern Ring Sea, Admiral," I replied, my expression stone cold and serious. "This is Pern… 2500 years in the future."

"Dear God!" he hissed, bug-eyed in amazement.

"Admiral, are you familiar with the work of the chrono-archeologists?" I asked.

"Yes," he managed to say, "the scientific research teams who studied the civilizations that discovered time travel, misused it, and ended up destroying themselves."

"Then, you understand the seriousness of the conversation we're now having," I replied.

Our eyes met. For several seconds, no one moved. Then, slowly, Admiral Benden nodded.

"We have to move carefully," he grunted.

"Lest something we do inadvertently destroys our timelines," I finished.

Grimly, Admiral Benden nodded.

"I don't believe things happen by accident, Admiral," I said, glancing back at my companions. "That rift may have brought us together for a reason."

"Go on," he urged.

"I couldn't help noticing how you're using sleds and shuttles to battle Threadfall," I commented. "Will you be able to sustain the battle using them?"

"Honestly, I wish I could tell you," Admiral Benden admitted.

"Have you determined the source of the Thread?" Kara daringly asked, stepping up to my side.

"The rogue planetoid," Admiral Benden replied. "We discovered that it passes through this star system's Oort Cloud, dragging with it millions of spores that rain down on Pern, transforming into Thread during the fires of reentry."

"The Red Star!" Elli hissed, joining us. "That's what we call it in our realities."

"Not technically correct," Admiral Benden remarked, "but I could see how it would appear like that from the surface of Pern. It's like a baleful red eye looking down on you… just before the hell begins."

"Other than the sleds and shuttles," I went on, "have you come up with any other countermeasures to the threat?"

"Counter what?" Kara wondered, unfamiliar with the term.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Admiral Benden replied, a slight smile coming to his face. "Our resident biogeneticist, Kitt Ping, had been working to engineer zebedees… bacteriophages designed to seek out and destroy the Thread spores. Just before this current Fall, we'd successfully seeded the Oort cloud with the spore killers. We just don't know how long that process will take. In the meantime, we're working on plans to alter the… what did you call it… oh, the Red Star. We're working on plans to use the antimatter cores from the three colony ships to blast it and alter its trajectory so that it no longer passes through the Oort Cloud."

"And you still have to deal with the spores the Red Star dragged into Pern's orbit," Elli remarked. "Why are you using the old sleds and shuttles to battle Thread? Where are your dragons?"

"Dragons?!" Admiral Benden gasped, glancing from us to our lifemates standing quietly behind us.

"Yes, dragons!" Kara responded. "In our realities, they were genetically engineered by Kitt Ping as a renewable means to combat Thread!"

"They chew a local mineral we call firestone," I explained. "Dissolved by certain stomach acids, it produces phosphine gas that ignites when exposed to air. Our dragons use that fire to flame Thread from the skies."

"Kitt Ping, huh?" Admiral Benden muttered, his expression turning worried.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"During that Fall you popped into," Admiral Benden explained, clearly pained by the memory, "Kitt Ping and her assistant, Wind Blossom, were killed by Thread back at their research facility."

"Ancestors!" I gasped.

"Shells!" Kara chimed in.

"Son of a bitch!" Elli cursed.

"You say Kitt Ping genetically engineered these 'dragons'?" Admiral Benden commented. "So, already our timeline has diverged from yours."

"There may still be hope for you, Admiral," I suggested. "Remember, I said I don't believe in accidents. That rift is here for a reason… to bring us together."

"Why?" he wondered, his curiosity piqued.

"We need help relearning how to manufacture the power cells that power the sleds," I explained, gesturing to my companions. "Perhaps, in exchange for your assistance, we can help introduce dragons to your reality!"

Chapter 4 - Breaking The Rift (Elli's P.O.V.)

"Lemme go home and get a flamethrower," I said. "We can get through the rift and help you fight Thread. My queen can't chew firestone, but Dana's and Kara's can by some freak happening of evolution."

"My queen is only a dragonet," Kara protested. "She can't fight Thread yet. I came with Dana."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," I sighed, defeated. "What we need is a full flight of dragons to sustain them through the Fall."

"I'll broadcast the image," offered Dana.

We walked through the rift into sheer pandemonium! Thread was falling all right, but the noise of the characteristic hiss it made was drowned out by the roar and thunder of massive engines.

"We can't fly our dragons through that!" F'lar cried. "We'll get hit by a sled or shuttle. How did you manage to get them to work?"

"We didn't," I shouted through the din. "We stumbled across another reality where they don't have dragons to fight in the Falls. This is Pern 2500 Turns in the past. Admiral Benden is still alive. He's leading squadrons of sled and shuttle pilots to fight the Thread. I don't know how their vehicles are gonna last if they keep being put to this use."

"And you think he's the key to helping us upgrade our technology the rest of the way?" Lessa screamed over the noise of the engines.

I nodded to save myself from screaming back.

"Fandarel's still trying to replicate my blaster," Dana cried, "but he still hasn't gotten it right yet."

"Here, Admiral, here's a real treat! Chlorith wants you to ride her during Threadfall. I'll put you behind me so you're not singed by the flamethrower."

"Oh, no, you don't," F'lar yelled. "I'm Weyrleader, it's my prerogative."

"Kara's the one who discovered this rift," Dana shouted, "and as her dragon is still a baby, it should be my dragon that carries the Admiral."

"Okay," Chlorith and I acquiesced in unison.

"Besides, then he won't have to worry about being singed by a flamethrower," we added, again in concert.

"Are you twins or something?" Dana wryly asked as she helped the Admiral to mount Tarnaa.

"We just think alike," I responded, smiling. "Tiffany and I are twins. I'm surprised she didn't get the call."

"I'm here, twin," came a voice from my right side. "Did you think I'd miss another adventure with you?"

I grinned at her, lifting off from the ground with the others and pointing my flamethrower down at the menace of Thread that the sleds and shuttles were missing. Chlorith began to dance.

_Not here, darling,_" I whispered telepathically.

_He needs to see what dragons can do,_ Chlorith informed me.

"Are you trying to impress him?" I demanded in a flirtatious voice.

_I already Impressed you,_ Chlorith said in a mock hurt voice. _I don't need another rider! No one can replace you!_

I laughed as she did a sideways flip in the air. I gripped her tightly with my legs and I flamed down below me. She usually flipped whenever there was a clump of Thread above us.

_Follow my lead,_ I heard her say to the rest of the dragons. _Those of you above me, sense my telepathic touch. I will send you images of what I want you to do. Queens, just look at me and follow on!_

She danced, I flamed, and the other dragons followed her. Even Lessa acquiesced to Chlorith's antics. Ramoth hadn't been much of a dancer, but she danced today like her life depended on it. Tarnaa and Sylene were the only queens who could breathe fire, so they rode in the upper wings, but they caught Chlorith's images and followed directions. This was an historical feat, not only because this was the first time all dragons had danced, but it was also the first time every single dragonrider from both realities had fought Thread together. It was also the first time Admiral Paul Benden had ever ridden a dragon. He marveled at what our Kitt Ping Yung had created and wondered why his Kitt Ping Yung couldn't have spent eight years creating her own dragons rather than those bacteriophages that probably wouldn't work anyway!

His best hope was to introduce the antimatter cores of the three colony ships into the rogue planetoid, but he couldn't do that yet. According to Dana Sterling, that had happened in both realities, but the matter in the Oort Cloud still needed to be exhausted. How could he introduce dragons into his reality? Kitti Ping and her granddaughter Wind Blossom were killed during this Fall. Could it be possible that they survived long enough in these other two parallel realities to create such immense and awesome creatures? They didn't have another geneticist. Ted Tubberman was a botanist, but he had been messing around with mentasynth and animals. Could he possibly create these creatures? No, he had not been trained with the Eridani. He didn't have the knowledge needed to create such powerful beings. Were they telepathic? Their riders seemed to talk to someone who wasn't there, or they would get an abstracted look on their face and seem to commune with someone unseen. Did she, perhaps, breed them from the fire-dragonets? His Kitti Ping had been obsessed with her zebedees. She was sure that making a biological weapon out of them would put an end to Thread forever, but though he had already inserted the bomb within the Oort Cloud, it had not yet exploded. Was it a dud?

When there was no Thread left, we all landed and checked the ground for burrows. There were plenty, but we flamed them all before anything could happen.

"How do you attach these dragons?" asked Paul.

"You Impress them at Hatching," I replied. "Usually people with some kind of psychic abilities. Usually people between the ages of 12 and 30 get the chance to Impress, but I was 36 when I Impressed my Chlorith. I don't know how old Dana was when she Impressed, but I think she was over 30. Tiffany and I were the first ever blind riders."

"What about those children riding bronzes and queens?" asked Kenjo.

"They're anomalies to say the least," I replied with a chuckle. "The girls are mine; the boys are Tiffany's."

"Do they teleport like the fire-dragonets?" Paul wondered.

"Yes, they do," Dana replied. "We call it going _between_."

"Can they go between times as well?" asked the Admiral.

"Yes, and between parallel universes," I replied. "We just discovered that ability about a year ago."

"I'm not originally from Pern," I continued, rattling on so that Paul and Kenjo could understand where we were coming from. "The dragons took a dangerous trip _between_ back 4000 years to Earth to find people to help the people of Pern upgrade their technology, as they had lost so much of it during the two and a half millennia they've been here. And Dana traveled the normal way from the Earth of this time because she intercepted a message rocket from two millennia ago and she wanted to see if the colonists had survived. She resigned her post as an FSP skipper to devote her life to the people of Pern."

"And what about you?" asked Admiral Benden. "Were you willing to go all the way to Pern 4000 years later?"

"Only if they brought along Tiffany," I explained. "She Impressed Rollith, and I Impressed Chlorith."

"We could definitely use your help," the Admiral said finally after a long silence. "And we could help you, but we came here precisely to achieve what we apparently have achieved."

"And what's that?" I asked.

"To abandon our technology in favor of a pastoral world."

"And we want it back!" F'lar responded, smiling. "We want to be like you. Perhaps we also want to contact this FSP and let them know that we survived. We want to be in contact with the rest of society."

This was the first time Dana and I had heard this from anyone before.

"Pern's so far out," I argued. "How the hell are we supposed to communicate with anyone off planet?"

"We could colonize other planets between here and there," F'lar said.

"You never wanted to do this," argued Lessa.

"Now that I've met my ancestor, that opens up a whole world of new possibilities," F'lar replied, smiling down at his diminutive weyrmate.

"We haven't even filled up the Southern and Western Continents," she exclaimed, "and you want to colonize new worlds?"

"In a few generations, the Southern and Western Continents will be as full as the Northern one," F'lar sighed, giving Lessa a hug. "We're going to need to spread out more."

Lessa sighed, shrugging. F'lar was just daydreaming. Or was he?

Chapter 5 – The Path Forward (Dana's P.O.V.)

So, the question now was… how best to proceed.

As I helped Admiral Benden down from Tarnaa's neck ridge, I could sense he was a bit overwhelmed by the whole adragonback experience. Still, he waved off assistance from others as I slid down my lifemate's side to join him on the ground, the skies above us, for now, clear of Thread.

"Whoo!" he gasped, once he finally got his bearings back. "That… was a hell of a ride!"

_I am pleased you liked it, Admiral,_ Tarnaa thrummed, rubbing his face with her muzzle.

Turning a puzzled expression my way, I told him, "She's just glad you enjoyed it, Sir!"

Patting the side of Tarnaa's head, he said, "Truly remarkable creatures. Telepathic communication? Between dragon and rider?"

"Aye, sir," I replied, glancing about at the gathering throng of people come to marvel at the sight of so many dragons.

"Makes sense," Admiral Benden had to admit. "Given the wind rush and all the other noises, you'd be hard pressed to make yourself heard."

"And you!" he loudly declared, giving Elli's shoulder a companionable squeeze. "Blind! And riding a dragon! You and… Chlorith! How do you do it?"

"Thanks to the telepathic link, Admiral," Elli explained, grinning from ear-to-ear, "I see through Chlorith's eyes. I call it dragonsight."

"Truly remarkable," he sighed, his gaze moving from one to the other.

"I'm just sorry we didn't get a chance to carry you," Elli apologized, wringing her hands. "Chlorith had so wanted to be the one to show you what we could do."

"Ah, now don't you fret, Elli, you and your Chlorith," Admiral Benden chuckled, once more giving Elli's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I'm not sure where or when the nickname 'Hawkeye' started, but I could not help but marvel at the skill and grace the two of you showed while you were up there battling Thread. A truly elegant display!"

"Kenjo!" he suddenly bellowed, glancing about at the human throng.

"Here, sir!" Kenjo responded, appearing at the Admiral's side.

"Your opinion, Mr. Fusaiyuki?" Admiral Benden requested.

"They left us in the dust, Admiral," Kenjo chuckled, giving Chlorith's neck a soft pat. "Far more maneuverable and accurate than our poor sleds and shuttles."

"Agreed," Admiral Benden acknowledged, giving Tarnaa's neck a quick thump. "You crunched the numbers?"

"Aye, sir," he replied, his expression serious. "We might be able to keep the sleds and shuttles airborne for another year, maybe two. After that, we'll have exhausted our material supplies and the vessels will fall into disrepair."

"Yeah, that's about what I figured," Admiral Benden sighed. Turning to the Benden leaders from Elli's reality, he added, "We're grateful for your help with the Fall today."

"Dragons must fly…" F'lar explained, shaking Paul's hand, "when Thread is in the sky."

"Lines from one of our Teaching Ballads," Lessa chuckled, giving her weyrmate's arm a hug. Glancing my way, she added, "A good friend recently reminded us of that."

"How will we handle the dragon introduction?" Admiral Benden wondered.

"Our Kitt Ping produced 42 dragon eggs before she died," I explained, confirming that same info with Elli. "Of all the initial dragon eggs to hatch, only 17 were part of the first dragon flight."

"But since we'll be introducing mature dragons and eggs to your reality, Admiral," Elli chimed in, "they'll have a better chance of success."

"That's good to know," Admiral Benden sighed, running his fingers through his greying hair. "I only wish I could promise the same for our part of the bargain."

"You can, Admiral," I assured him. "As the Turns passed, the people of our Perns gradually lost the knowledge their Ancestors had brought with them. Only recently, and quite by accident, they rediscovered Landing and began to reacquaint themselves with those who first came to Pern."

"Thanks to the knowledge they uncovered from AIVAS…" Kara chimed in.

"AIVAS?!" Paul Benden exclaimed. "But you said 2500 years had passed in your realities!"

"It had," I chuckled.

"Then how did it survive?" Kenjo wondered, totally incredulous.

"Because of the efforts you all took to protect it from the eruptions," Lessa explained. "The heat shield tiles you lined the outside of the facility with protected AIVAS from being incinerated."

"Even though its solar panels were choked with volcanic dust," Kara added, "AIVAS was still able to receive enough energy to keep it in low power mode, waiting for its humans to return."

"Once we knew what we had," F'lar spoke, "we were able to relearn some of the knowledge and skills our people had lost over the Turns. With that knowledge, we were able to successfully separate the antimatter power cores from the Yokohama, the Bahrain, and the Buenos Aires, and use their explosive power to alter the trajectory of the Red Star so that it no longer passed through the Oort Cloud and drag with it the spores that rain down on Pern, transforming into Thread during the fires of reentry."

"In our realities, Admiral, it took 2500 Turns to accomplish the impossible," I said, glancing about us, "to set in motion all the steps necessary to bring an end to Thread on Pern. We even followed some of Kitt Ping's notes to create zebedees, the bacteriophages created from the Thread spores that would become Thread killers. They've been seeded into the Red Star's debris trail. Eventually, the zebedees will work their way back to the Oort Cloud, wiping out Thread forever."

"But how can we possibly help you with the sled power cores?" Admiral Benden asked. "We didn't bring with us what was necessary to manufacture them."

"You have people who are familiar with the techniques and processes that our people are trying to relearn, Admiral," I replied, coming up to him. "With their help, we can relearn the lost arts and begin to once more produce the power cells for our sleds. Will you help us?"

"Wait!" Admiral Benden exclaimed, turning to F'lar. "You said you used the antimatter power cores to alter the Red Star's orbit! How in the hell did you move them?"

"Our dragons," Lessa chuckled. "As long as they believe they can move something, nothing seems too big for them!"

"They carried them?!" Kenjo gasped.

"They shifted them," I chuckled, "using their ability to go _between_."

"Teleportation!" Admiral Benden concluded. "Well, then, your dragons really can give us a hand!"

As I took in the crowd around us, humans and dragons, I suddenly gasped, "Ancestors!"

"Dana, what is it?" Elli wondered, laying a hand on my arm as she sensed the urgency in my cry.

"Kitt Ping!" I whispered, trembling slightly.

"What about her?" Kenjo asked.

"Don't you see?" I exclaimed, seizing Elli by the arm. "She was the point of divergence!"

"I still don't follow," Kara complained.

"We exist because of her," I explained, sweeping those around me with my gaze. "In our realities, she chose to create the dragons. In this reality, she chose to work on the zebedees. That decision is where our realities diverged."

"I see where this is heading," Admiral Benden injected. "Because of that divergence, any help you provide us here…"

"Won't have any effect on our realities!" Elli exclaimed.

"By the First Egg!" F'lar hissed.

"We'll be alright!" Lessa sighed, giving her weyrmate a hug. "We're safe!"

Cheers and applause erupted around us, relief sweeping through the crowd.

"Admiral?" I asked, turning to him.

"You worked with the chrono-archs, didn't you?" he chuckled.

Smiling, I nodded. "You mentioned a zebedee bomb that you and Kenjo planted in the Oort Cloud."

Admiral Benden nodded back. "Should've gone off by now, but we haven't seen any evidence of the blast."

"Not that surprising," I said, meeting his gaze. "The shuttle you used… FTL equipped?"

"Yes, it was," Kenjo acknowledged. "Ah! I see! That would explain it!"

"Explain what?" Admiral Benden asked.

"Why we haven't seen anything yet," I chimed in. "The inner edge of the Oort Cloud is roughly 5000 AU from here."

"What the hell is an AU?" Elli wondered.

"AU… it stands for Astronomical Unit, an old Earth unit of measure," I explained. "Rather than rattle off the numbers in actual miles or kilometers, they decided to note them in AUs. One AU is the distance of old Earth from the sun… 93 million miles."

"So, the inner edge of the Oort Cloud is 5000 times 93 million miles," Kenjo added. Whipping out a small pocket device, he punched a few buttons, then said, "That works out to be 465 billion miles away."

Admiral Benden whipped out his own device, punching a few more buttons before declaring, "It'll take the light of the explosion nearly 29 days to reach us." Chuckling, he added, "No wonder we haven't seen anything yet."

"I don't follow," Kara muttered.

"FTL stands for Faster Than Light," I explained. "The shuttle Admiral Benden and Kenjo flew is capable of faster-than-light speeds. With it, they could've made the journey out to the Oort Cloud, planted their zebedee bomb, and returned here to Pern in less than an hour. But the light of the explosion can only travel at a constant 186,000 miles per second. At that distance, it'll take the light of the blast 29 days to reach us."

"Do we wait then?" Elli wondered.

I shook my head. "No reason to. Seeding the Oort Cloud is just one of the steps to eliminate Thread. Shifting the Red Star is also a vital part of that effort. And, if the Admiral's plan works, his people will only have to endure a single Pass instead of the nine we've been dealing with."

"Nine?!" Admiral Benden exclaimed, eyes bugging out.

I nodded again. "And, since the current population of your Pern consists only of the current 6000 colonists, we won't need to establish all the Weyrs our timelines developed. Just one should be sufficient. That one will then grow and expand as the population grows, though once this Pass is over for you, Admiral, there might not be any others, depending on how successful the zebedee effort turns out to be."

"Just a single Pass," Lessa muttered, shaking her head. "If only…"

"Now don't go getting anymore crazy ideas!" F'lar chided her, grinning as he hooked an arm around her waist.

"We'd best get started," I suggested.

Three things needed to be done. Shift the antimatter cores to the Red Star to alter its trajectory. Establish a new Weyr in this timeline. Supply Admiral Benden and his people with enough dragon eggs to help sustain the new Weyr. We had a lot of work to do.

Chapter 6 - A Merging Of Realities (Elli's P.O.V.)

"We can't abandon our own reality in Threadfall," F'lar said; "but we do need to spend a lot of time here."

"I agree wholeheartedly," Lessa responded. "Let's see what our counterparts say."

Lessa turned to see where her other-self went, but she was gone.

"That's odd," she commented. "Did she already return to Dana's reality?"

"I'm still here," Dana responded. "No one returned home."

"Hmmmmmm," F'lar and Lessa hummed together."

"Where's Elli?" asked Dana, beginning to panic.

"I'm right here! Duh!" I cried. "You have sight; use it!"

"I didn't see you there," argued Dana defensively.

"That makes two of us." I joked. "Join the club!"

"Then where are our counterparts?" asked Lessa, also beginning to panic. "Elli and Dana are both here. Moreta's over there, Elli's family are all grouped together."

"I told Mom to stay with the children!" I shouted, beginning to panic myself, but for a completely different reason. "Manora's finally getting old. She can't manage six children by herself!"

"So is your mother, Elli," Lessa said gently. "With her congestive heart failure, she tires very easily."

"Then she shouldn't be here to watch us fight Fall," I argued. "She hates riding a-dragonback. She has severe motion sickness."

"Did I even say she was here?" Lessa snapped. "I said your family was here."

"And that includes my mother and my children," I argued.

"I meant your brothers and sister and their weyrmates," Lessa gently responded.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The two C'lebs, Tina, A'zander, Kayla, L'coln, Elsie, D'lon, Trisha, C'lin, and Nicole were all here, but all the children who hadn't Impressed dragons were safely at Honshu or Igen.

"Then what're you all panicking about?" I demanded, joviality returning.

"Our realities seem to have merged," Dana concluded somewhat shakily. "What does that mean for us?"

"I don't know, but I'm willing to find out," I said, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Whose reality would we be entering when we returned home?

"I think it'll be a combination of the two since we're all here," I said happily. "I think the hospitals will have merged, and all the rest of the Crafthalls and holds will have merged, but they'll have added a few people here and there from the realities that didn't exist in both."

"I hope you're right," sighed Dana, still visibly trembling. "We gotta get home and ready our space suits for the journey to the Red Star."

"Shouldn't we explode the engines separately?" I asked. "That's how they did it in our realities."

"How do you mean?" Dana asked.

"Chlorith's been talking to Ruth about this same subject, and Ruth said he and Jaxom took riders back in time on two separate occasions to explode the antimatter engines."

Dana wobbled dangerously, then collapsed in my arms in a dead faint. Then pandemonium reigned again as people rushed about, trying to revive her. People from all three realities, (correction, two realities), were running about, getting water, thrusting ammonia cans under her nose, trying to revive her. She finally stirred, batting the hands away.

"We're trapped," she said weakly.

"No, we're not," I said cajolingly. "We just have to find our hospital."

I helped her mount Tarnaa, and I mounted Chlorith, and all the riders went _between_ to Cove Hold. The hospital was indeed there, as was Robinton's old house.

"Will our Weyrs be there as well?" F'lar wondered.

"Let's find out," I cried excitedly.

We all transferred _between_ back to our respective Weyrs, finding them just as we had left them. Honshu was perfect. But then another thought came to mind.

_Dana wants to know what Turn we're in_, Chlorith informed me. _Are we in pp 37 or 27?_

"Hmmmmmm," I said ponderously. "What Turn are we in?"

I went up to my AIVAS device, which looked exactly like an Amazon Echo, but had all of AIVAS's audio capabilities, (including his rich, melodious voice), and asked it what Turn it was on Pern.

"This is the year 2559 after Landing." AIVAS informed me.

"Thank you," I said courteously.

"You're welcome," AIVAS responded just as courteously. "Anything else this facility can help you with?"

"Not right now," I told it.

I remounted Chlorith and transferred _between_ to Robinton Cove.

"Dana, ask your AIVAS what year it is," I said after the most perfunctory of knocks on her office door.

I could hear her AIVAS device give her the same response as mine did… year 37 of the ninth pass, 2559 after Landing. I could hear her start to cry. I went in and hugged her.

"It's not your fault, Dana," I said. "I think we tried too hard to bring our parallels together. We made our realities too similar to each other. All riders coming together to fight Thread was the final straw. We merged with each other, but all those who only existed in one of the two realities were able to stay in this new reality we created. Ryeena's safe, Kara's safe, everybody's safe. No one died. They just merged into one person. There's only one F'lar, one Lessa, and so-on."

"What did we do?" Dana sobbed. "What could we have done to stay separate? How will this affect the timeline?"

"It won't, because we merged," I replied. "It will not affect Benden's timeline at all, because his is already so divergent from ours. Kit Ping died creating dragons in our reality, and Kit Ping and Wind Blossom died during Threadfall creating bacteriophages. Plus, he'd have to come forward 2500 Turns for our realities to merge. Don't worry. We'll be all right. I promise you. His reality will stay separate from ours. We will be able to help each other out, but we won't merge with Admiral Benden's reality. If they do divert the Red Star, they might have to deal with cometary fragments though, so they'll need observatories for the dragons to study the stars and practice their telekinetic abilities. Boy, will he be surprised when he sees those!"

The whole time I was talking I heard Chlorith and Ruth engrossed in their own conversation, but I really wasn't paying attention until I heard Chlorith say in a deadly voice: _You're not taking my clutch, Rebelleth! I'll flame you down before I let you have them!_

_I'll take your eggs and eat them for breakfast!_ Ruth growled in an evil tone.

What the hell were they talking about? Chlorith didn't even have a clutch on the Hatching Grounds right now. Was Ruth infected by that same subliminal programming D'lan had infected so many others with? Chlorith gave a hideous shriek and made to go _between_, but then she flapped back on the ground as though dead.

Then she said in a duh voice: _Gyarmath, that's your cue. I've gone 'between'. Now you need to call your beloved queen back!_

I burst out laughing. "Dana, are you hearing this? The dragons are role playing!"

"They're not worried about our situation?" Dana demanded.

"I guess not!" I replied, still laughing. "Who'da thunk dragons could pretend?"

Then I reached out silently to Ruth. _What're you doing?_

_Chlorith needs to get past what she did to D'lan_, Ruth informed me in a normal voice. _I thought if we could reconstruct the situation, she would do the right thing again. Then she could get past the fact she killed a rider._

_And his dragon,_ I thought back.

_And his dragon,_ Ruth agreed. _I was gonna have Gyarmath play the villain, but he wouldn't kill his life mate, even by pretend means, so I'm playing the villain, Rebelleth, and he's playing Ramalath's weyrmate who calls her back from 'between'._

_That didn't happen in the case of D'lan,_ I reminded Ruth.

_No,_ he replied, _but I'm changing it up a little so that it doesn't exactly replicate the situation we had with D'lan and Denorth. If we did that, Chlorith would go into hysterics._

_I would think so_, I said as Gyarmath began to sing 'Keymon's Song'.

Even Dana, who I could tell was still unnerved by our current situation, listened intently. The dragons on the heights began to sing along, both physically and telepathically, and our three queen fire-lizards began a descant.

"It's quite something to hear 'Keymon's Song' without human accompaniment," I said. "I wonder what the riders will think when they hear this rendition."

"We really ought to check the other Weyrs to make sure everyone's okay," Dana commented, getting back to the task at hand.

"I think they are," I declared, "but let's check anyway. It's our realities that have merged. I need to check on Twinny. Can you place a feeding tube if she can't keep anything down?"

"I'll also have to replace her bed with a hospital one so she can recline," Dana responded.

"Let's go back to Honshu and collect her," I said. "Then we'll check on the other Weyrs."

As it happened, Tiffany did not want her feeding tube placed until she was quite certain that all the Weyrs of Pern survived, so she went with us to check on them, for all she was weak and dehydrated. Every Weyr was okay, including the merged dragonriders. The only problems were the riders that had only existed in one reality thus far. They had nowhere to sleep and were quarreling about whose weyr was whose.

"Okay, children, enough squabbling!" I said finally, after checking on Igen Weyr and finding Tina and another green rider vying for quarters. "There're two adjoining rooms here. Each of you take one of them and stop arguing!"

"But what about Felicia?" Tina demanded. "She needs a room, and I'm not leaving her side until this illness passes."

"How about you take her to the hospital at Robinton Cove," I suggested. "Then she can get the care she needs."

"She can't go _between,_" argued Tina.

"Then fly her straight!" I fired back. "She needs a hospital if she's gonna survive!"

I went next door, lifted the child off the bed, noticed how hot she was, and took her to Chlorith.

"Back to Robinton Cove," I said to Chlorith. "Dana has a new patient."

When we got there, Dana was in a right state. She wanted to go with me to check out the Weyrs, but she had patients, both human and dragon, to see to. When I put Felicia in her arms, she blanched.

"This child is very ill," she declared. "Who left it so long? I don't know if I can save her!"

"Tina didn't want to leave her side," I told her. "She didn't think she could go _between_. I took her _between_ because I thought it might break the fever. She didn't say she had fire-head, so I risked it."

Then Tiffany stumbled into the room.

"I'm ready to place my feeding tube now," she said in a resigned voice.

"Okay, let's place you, then we'll work on Felicia. Ryeena, we need you."

Ryeena administered the anesthesia to Tiffany, then went to work on Felicia, who was by now delirious.

"Save my niece," I cried out to Ryeena. "I couldn't stand it if anything happened to her!"

I stayed with Tiffany the whole time the tube was being placed.

"What're you going to use in it?" I asked Dana. "You can't manufacture the formula that usually goes in feeding tubes on Earth, can you?"

"We've crushed tubers and other vegetables and fruits into a powder that will be mixed with water and will go into the apparatus," Dana responded. "We just have to keep reproducing it. We can't crush meat of course, but we can definitely try to give her nutrients. The FSP uses synthetics of course, but I believe this is much more nutritious than synthetics."

"I just hope it works," I said anxiously.

I was more anxious about this than the merger of the two realities into one. I hadn't checked on the Eastern Islands Weyr yet. I left that up to Dana since Kara was her friend. Moreta came in and offered to take Dana's place now that the feeding tube had been successfully placed.

"How is she gonna ride Rollith?" I asked.

"The same way she always would," Dana replied. "She just can't do any night riding if she has the tube hooked up. You have electrical outlets at Honshu now?"

I nodded.

"Then you're all set," Dana assured me. "I'll gather more fruits and veggies to crush for her. I think I have enough to last her a month, but she'll probably need the tube longer than that."

"Probably should do that near the end of the month," I countered. "And how long will she stay here?"

"Until you can get her a hospital bed," Dana replied. "That's the only thing holding her up."

"Great!" I said jubilantly. "I'll stay with her until Bendarek can make her a hospital bed."

"I think he'll have to team up with Benelek," Dana commented. "She might need to adjust them. These beds can turn into chairs, you know."

"Yes, I know," I replied. "I used to enjoy playing with hospital beds."

"I'm still confused about the merger, though," Dana muttered. "Will Admiral Benden's reality be affected by it?"

"I don't think so," I gently concluded. "His reality is too different from ours. For one thing, he's still 2559 Turns in the past. For another, there are no dragons yet. We're gonna introduce dragons to his reality, but we will not have bioengineered them for him. These dragons will have come from the future."

"And make sure Sean and Sorka Impress!" cried Ryeena, entering the room.

"They're the first Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Pern," I responded. "Of course they'll Impress."

"There're four clutches on the Hatching Grounds right now," Dana informed us. "Each of those clutches have queen eggs. I think F'lar's idea is to take several eggs from each clutch, as we don't need any more queens at this point. They're gonna need plenty!"

"One of the queens is Ramoth's," Ryeena said excitedly, "and Lessa thinks this is her last one."

"I'll believe it when I see it," I chuckled. "Ramoth's always clutching queens, and she's also always in season."

Dana and Ryeena laughed.

"That was true in both our realities," Dana said, then stopped. "What's gonna happen to us now?"

Her voice came out in a plaintive whine as she broke down anew. I went to comfort her.

"I'm here, sweetheart," I said gently. "Go ahead and cry. I don't think there'll be any lasting repercussions, but we'll just have to take it one day at a time, and just see how things go. In the meantime, we'll continue to help Admiral Benden and receive help from him in return."

Chapter 7 – A New Reality (Dana's P.O.V.)

I felt disoriented; adrift. After all the time I had spent with the chrono-archeologists and their work researching civilizations who had discovered Time travel and ended up destroying themselves because of it, I was more than a little concerned about the ramifications of the unexpected merging of our two realities… Elli's… and my own.

I tried to recall if we'd ever come across such a convergence before, but, try as I might, I couldn't think of a single instance.

Or maybe it had never happened before. That was a possibility.

"There's a first time for everything." A quote I'd once heard. I was beginning to dislike it.

Whatever. We had a job to do if we were going to assist Admiral Paul Benden and the colonists fighting to survive Thread in their reality. And I intended to keep that promise.

Our first stop was back at Robinton Cove to see how things were going there. Moreta was waiting to greet us as we landed.

"Dana, what the hell's going on?" she demanded, gesturing to the hospital behind her. "One minute I'm working on sewing up a green, and the next thing I know, we're nearly overrun with patients appearing out of thin air!"

"I know," I sighed, feeling the same frustration.

"What the hell happened?" Moreta inquired.

"Convergence," I groaned.

"Convergence?" Moreta wondered. "Of what?"

Our eyes met… and Moreta gasped. "No!" Then, more urgently, she seized my arm, asking, "How? Why?"

"I don't know," I confessed, looking away. "Elli seems to think it was because our two realities had become so similar. The truth is, we may never know the reason it happened. But it did… and we still have a job to do."

Grasping her shoulder, I said, "I need you here to look after the hospital. I'm leaving Ryeena here to assist you."

"What?!" my young assistant gasped, not liking the idea. "But why? Where will you be?"

"At Landing," I told her, remounting my dragon. "We need AIVAS' help to redirect the Red Star."

"But I'd heard that Lord Jaxom, F'lar, and the others already did that!" Moreta argued.

"In this Pass," I tried to explain. "But in another reality…"

"Moreta," Ryeena jumped in, laying a hand on the Fort Weyrwoman's arm, "we discovered a rift that took us back 2500 Turns to when Admiral Paul Benden was still alive!"

"Who?" Moreta wondered, a blank expression on her face.

"Get going!" Ryeena ordered, waving a dismissal. "I'll fill her in!"

"Tarnaa, aloft!" I ordered, leaning into her neck.

With a powerful yet graceful leap, we were instantly airborne, vanishing _between_ after barely clearing the treetops!

Somehow sensing my urgency, Tarnaa came out of _between_ just inches above the ground and directly in front of the doorway leading into the AIVAS building at Landing. I was out of my riding belt and sliding down her side before the dust had even settled, taking off at a run through the front door.

That's where Kara, Elli, and the others found me… once they'd calmed down enough to discover where I'd gone.

"Dana, what's the rush?" Elli demanded, she and the others finding me hunkered over the main AIVAS computer terminal. "Whoa! What is that?"

"A 3-d model of this star system," I replied, turning to the holo-projection floating in the air next to me.

There were two projections, actually.

"This one represents this reality and the sequence of events leading up to the attempt to divert the Red Star," I explained as the animation replayed itself over and over. "As you can see, in order to divert the planetoid, it had been necessary to shift the first two power cores back in time to have the greatest effect on altering the Red Star's orbit, allowing for the planetary perturbations that occurred during that time."

"What's this one, then?" Elli wondered, indicating the second projection.

"This is what the Pern system looked like at the time the Ancients first experienced Threadfall," I explained, gesturing to the different parts of the model. "I pulled this information from the scan logs of the Yokohama that it made as they entered this star system. Positions of the planetary bodies back then were significantly different than they were when Jaxom and the others made their attempt to alter the Red Star."

"So?" Kara wondered, having trouble following what I was getting at.

"Just this," I explained, pointing to the model of the Red Star as it moved through the second animation. "The alignment of the planets means we can set off the explosives here…" A flash appeared on the model. "Here…" A second flash as the planetoid moved through its orbital path. "And here…" A third flash appeared. "The impulse… the shove… from those detonations, augmented by the gravitational forces that exist because of the planetary alignments, will allow us to alter the Red Star's trajectory, sending it spiraling into Rukbat, not in the 500 Turns it will take here… but in only 60 Turns!"

"What?!" everyone gasped.

"Are you saying…" Kara whispered, starting to grasp the significance.

"The Red Star will plunge into Rukbat shortly after the end of their first and only Pass!" Elli exclaimed.

"Precisely," I affirmed. "Elli, didn't you tell me Aureath and Aurelith share the same sort of time sense as Ruth?"

"Well, yeah, they do," she admitted, a wry grin on her face. "Ariana even brags about it."

Suddenly, she whirled to face me. "Oh, no. No, you don't. No way, Jose! I am not risking the girls!"

"Time sense?" Kara pondered, looking a bit confused.

"A dragon's ability to know precisely where _and_ when they are," I explained. "It was key to our dragonriders efforts to divert the Red Star. The planetary alignments and gravitational effects were horribly out of balance for that attempt, necessitating the extreme temporal displacements they had to make in order to place the explosives."

Pointing once more at the second projection, I added, "But, in Admiral Benden's reality, 2500 Turns in the past, the planetary alignments are near perfect. But we need to place the explosives at precise time increments in order to maximize the diversion of the Red Star."

"Well, I'm in," Kara spoke, nodding in the direction of her dragon. "Plinath didn't have any problems finding her way between the realities. Once we know where and when you want us to go, we'll get that power core delivered."

"Count me in, too," Jaxom interrupted, coming forward into the room. "Ruth and I have done this sort of thing before. Any idea how long the temporal displacements will have to be?"

"Not as extreme as your efforts, Lord Jaxom," I replied, giving his hand a shake. "In fact, from the first placement to the last will only require time offsets of no more than a year."

"You're serious?!" Lessa gasped.

I nodded. "The only challenge is that the jumps will be forward in time. We'll have to be very careful with our visualizations before we make the attempts."

"Any chance this… convergence… we experienced will affect their reality?" F'lar, understandably concerned, wondered.

"Minimal… if at all," I replied, shaking my head. "Their reality diverged from ours the moment Kitt Ping chose to work on the zebedees instead of the dragons."

"Glancing about the room, I said, "If there are no further questions, we'd better get going."

F'lar and Lessa had the idea to call upon the same dragons and riders who had pulled off the antimatter power core extractions the first time. It made sense. They would simply be repeating what they'd already done, just in a different reality. They also still had the protective mitts the dragons used to protect their talons from the extreme cold of the power cores metal frames.

Once everyone was assembled, we took wing, climbing high into the skies of Pern. When everyone settled into their assigned positions, Tarnaa gave everyone the image of our destination, and we jumped, en masse, _between_, arriving just a scant five minutes later back in Time in that alternate reality, thanks to the effects of the temporal-dimensional rift that still existed.

We took a moment to alert Admiral Benden then got to work. Tarnaa and our group would make the first extraction, removing the antimatter power core from the Yokohama. It came away without a hitch. Then, I turned the displacement effort over to Jaxom and Ruth. Of those who displayed the time sense, Ruth's was the most precise, and I didn't want to take any chances. Following the directions AIVAS had specifically laid down, our dragon group secured the now-free power core in their collective talons then shifted _between_, emerging just a month forward in Time, depositing our payload in the crevice on the surface of the dormant Red Star before returning a minute after we left back to our departure location. With everyone giving me a thumbs up, we returned to the planet's surface, trading off spacesuits to those who needed them.

The next dragon team took wing, vanishing _between_ as they went up to the Bahrain to extract their power core. A minute later, the second group rematerialized and landed. Their time displacement had been a little longer, taking their payload five months into the future and dropping their payload in the proper target crevice.

The process was repeated a third time, dragons and spacesuited riders taking wing, then vanishing _between_ on their way to the Buenos Aires for their power core extraction. And, one minute after they disappeared, they rematerialized overhead, bugling excitedly at the success of their mission. That time shift had been the longest, nearly a year forward in Time, but everyone returned without incident.

"So, what now?" Admiral Benden wondered as the celebrations continued.

"Now, we wait, Admiral," I sighed, "and pray. We should see four events."

"Four?!" he exclaimed, a little confused. "You only placed three explosives!"

"The first event will be the detonation of your zebedee bomb," I chuckled. "The light from that should reach here in about five days. Thirty days after that, we should see the first detonation on the Red Star. Five months later, the second. One Turn later, the third and final one. If all goes according to plan, a month after that, we should have an updated reading on the Red Star's new trajectory… straight into the thermonuclear heart of Pern's star, Rukbat."

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about the spores the Red Star has already pulled into Pern's orbit," Elli chimed in, frowning as she did. "You'll have to survive Thread until the end of this Pass."

"But once that happens," Kara added, grinning as she laid a hand on my shoulder and one on Elli's, "with the Red Star diverted away from the Oort Cloud, this'll be the only Pass you and the other colonists will ever see."

"If you can keep up the repair on your FTL shuttle, Admiral," I suggested, "you can send someone up periodically to check on the progress of the zebedees."

"I'll see to it personally, Admiral," Kenjo volunteered. "We should be able to keep a single shuttle running for nearly a decade once we have the dragons to take over the Thread fighting."

"Agreed," Admiral Benden replied.

With the Red Star effort completed, we stopped by on the day the light from the zebedee bomb would reach Pern. It appeared in the night sky right on schedule, sending a collective sigh of relief throughout the colony. Now we just had to get their dragons going.

Chapter 8 - A New Beginning (Elli's P.O.V.)

The next morning, the four queen riders whose queens were in clutch noticed that all the eggs had been stolen and their queens were absent. Lessa was particularly bad-tempered, as something like this had happened to her and Ramoth before. Lessa couldn't touch Ramoth. She had gone somewhen to search for her eggs. Lessa turned on Brekke, whose queen was also in Clutch.

"Do you know what's going on?" she demanded, not softening an inch when she saw Brekke's terrified expression.

"I don't know, Lessa." Brekke cried defensively. "I can't reach Wirenth, either!"

At Ista Weyr, Cosira was having a panic attack as her queen and her eggs were also gone. At Igen Weyr, Raeana was in tears. She frantically texted me, rousting me out of bed in the middle of the night.

"How the hell can someone steal a dragon?" I demanded aloud, misunderstanding Raeana's text.

"Read it again," G'narish said sleepily.

MIROIRTH AND ALL HER EGGS ARE GONE! PLEASE HELP ME! I CAN'T REACH HER!

"WHAT CAN I DO?" I texted back. "I'M HERE AT HONSHU!"

I NEED YOU MOM! PLEASE HURRY! was the answer I got back.

"All right, I'll get my flying gear," I groaned aloud. "I'm 52 years old; I need my beauty sleep!"

"I'll go with you," said G'narish. "Lemme get my flying gear, and by the way, you're still young."

"Not young enough to bear children anymore," I sighed.

Not that I wanted anymore, but it would be a mark of youth to have children.

When we got to Igen, Miroirth was in plain sight on the Hatching Ground with her clutch, but something was indeed wrong. She was collecting the eggs within her forelegs, rearranging them so all of them fit. Then, she rose laboriously into the air and went _between_.

"Raeana, didn't you see that?" I demanded before realizing that she was fast asleep on the insulated blankets that Dana had introduced to us before our realities had merged. Then, I realized Chlorith had taken the initiative yet again.

"Take us back to the present, Chlori," I commanded.

When we landed, we found our daughter in a right state. Her eyes were red, puffy, and swollen. Her face was blotchy, and her lips quivered dangerously again.

"Raeana, she took the clutch with her," I smiled at her. "No one stole it. She's with her eggs."

"But where would she have gone?" asked Raeana plaintively, beginning to cry again. "Why would she leave me behind? What did I do to displease her?"

"I don't think you did anything to displease her," I said, taking her up in my arms. "I have a suspicion I know where she went, though. Come on, I'll take you."

Raeana shook as we mounted Chlorith's back, and I held her as we transferred _between_. It was the shortest jump between times I'd ever taken. All we had to do was jump to the clearing and walk through the rift. Inside the laboratory, there was an enclosure for animals to breed. There, inside that space, were Ramoth, Wirenth, Caylith, and Miroirth, all crouched low over their clutches.

"You see Raeana?" I said. "They're taking the initiative and introducing dragons to Admiral Paul Benden."

"But why would she go without me?" asked Raeana plaintively.

_Because you have lives to live in your own reality_, Miroirth explained. _We'll be back as soon as our clutches hatch. They would have been more upset if you'd gone with us._

_We know what we're doing,_ said Ramoth smugly. _They will all Hatch at the same time, and when they do, we will see a grand Impression. Then they, too, will have dragons._

"What do we tell your riders?" I asked.

_Tell them that we're doing what they originally suggested,_ Ramoth said. _We're delivering dragons to the colonists. Then they can fight Thread, asteroids, and cometary fragments._

"I'll go tell them right now," said G'narish.

"I'll go alert Admiral Benden that he has eggs in the laboratory, and that he'll need hot sands in there immediately if he wants them to survive."

As it happened, I couldn't find the Admiral. I found Sean Connell instead. When I told him there were eggs in the laboratory, he thought somebody's fire-lizard had clutched, but when I led him through to the lab and he saw the size of the eggs, he just about died of surprise.

"Jase!" he cried. "Those are dragon eggs!"

"And all the candidates should be from your reality, too," I said. "The queens will stay with their clutches until they Impress. In the meantime, we'll teach your reality all the dos and don'ts of being a dragonrider. For example, do not let your queens stay in the same place while another queen is mating. They will end up killing each other over the bronzes."

"But fire-lizard queens don't kill each other!" Sean said disbelievingly. "They just watch and do aerial displays in the air."

"I know, I have two myself," I agreed, smiling, "but there are a lot less dragons than fire-lizards, and the bronzes of a certain area can only go after one queen at a time. Most fire-lizards are wild; dragons have riders. They can't go too far away from their Weyr while mating. The rider is linked to the dragon during mating. They usually mate with the rider whose dragon flies them, but there are cases when a blue might go for a green with a male rider, and the blue rider is straight, so he'll find some Weyrfolk to mate with instead of the other rider."

"Fire-lizard handlers are linked to their lizards in mating, too," Sean commented.

"Yes, but not as strongly as a dragon and rider. Also, the rider of a bronze leads a Weyr or a wing during Threadfall. The Weyrleader is the rider whose bronze flies the senior queen. The senior queen is usually the oldest queen, or she's the first to mate after the Last senior Weyrwoman dies. When a rider dies, the dragon goes _between_. It never comes back. Queens cannot chew firestone, except Tarnaa and Sylene. I don't know if that'll change once our two realities have merged. The original programming was for the queens to barf up paste, because queens are only supposed to breed, not flame, but your counterpart in our reality suggested that queen riders use flamethrowers strapped to their backs. Riders cannot go _between_ while pregnant, unless wearing space suits. Going _between_ causes miscarriage. and greens can chew firestone, but it sterilizes them. They can't clutch, which is a good thing, because their clutches would be very small with small dragons, and they wouldn't keep watch over them like the queens. You see how closely the queens guard their eggs?"

"What about fighting Thread?" he asked.

"We'll train you how to do that, as well," I told him. "I'd really like to see you ride a dragon. You'd be an excellent Weyrleader."

_He already is,_ Chlorith commented.

_Not in this reality, my love,_ I thought back at her. _There might be another divergence_.

_Let's hope not!_ Chlorith cried passionately.

_We can't merge again!_ I cried.

_Your dragons were created by Kitt Ping,_ Chlorith said knowledgeably. _These dragons are being borrowed from another reality._

_But their ancestors were also created by Kitt Ping,_ I protested.

_They only had 18 original dragons that survived long enough to hatch. We're giving them 136 eggs, which includes four queens. That's enough to start a Weyr with. And, hopefully, they'll never have to go north because the volcanoes won't erupt._

"We can only hope." I said aloud, forgetting there was another person in the room with me.

"That's right," Sean said, smiling at me. "We can only hope."

Chapter 9 – Training In Earnest

To say I was surprised by the initiative of the four queens… Ramoth, Wirenth, Caylith, and Miroirth… would be vastly understating my reaction. And yet, if the dragon does indeed mirror their rider, then it was already a foregone conclusion… I mean, aside from Wirenth and her rider, Brekke, the other three queens were all lifemates to Senior Weyrwomen! In the end, I… and everyone else… was grateful for their actions. Still, I couldn't help wondering if Chlorith's dragon teachings had influenced their actions a little bit.

Things began to move at a brisk pace once everyone realized what had happened. Lessa, Brekke, Cosira, and Raeana headed the first level of Weyr training for Admiral Benden's people. They were on watch, instructing the new candidates on how to approach the eggs, what to do, and definitely what not to do!

Many of the colonists came forward, hoping for their chance to Impress one of the dragons. Of the thousands who applied, 500 Hatching candidates were eventually selected, screened by some of the best Search dragons our reality had to offer.

Then began their weyrlings training… how to care for their dragonets, what to look for, what to expect. This first group also had a chance to experience fighting Thread firsthand… astride our dragons who were providing Thread coverage along with the colonists' shuttles and sleds. It turned out beneficial in the end. Over half of the candidates developed motion sickness and were unable to continue during the Falls. Those individuals were then given training in ground support roles, including the operation of flamethrowers and agenothree sprayers. Others elected to pursue healer training so that they could support the ones who would eventually ride dragons.

By the time Hatching Day arrived, the final Candidate list had been whittled down to 150. Still a good selection for the soon to be born dragonets. Chlorith, Elli's queen, showed a marked interest in both Sean Connell and Sorka Hanrahan, which didn't come as a surprise, given the lessons she had taught the dragons of our reality. Moreta was her heroine, and she knew Sean and Sorka in our reality had gone on to become the first Weyrleader and Weyrwoman.

"Lovey, don't hover!" Elli cautioned her lifemate.

_But they're the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman!_ Chlorith complained.

I moved over next to Elli, whispering so that only she'd hear, "Of our reality, Chlorith. We can't force this. It has to happen on its own."

_But…_

"No buts, Chlori," Elli softly spoke, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. "Dana's right. If we push too hard, it could alter this timeline. Be patient, love. You'll see. It'll all come right."

Before we knew it, Hatching Day was upon us. Having never heard the dragons hum before, the penetrating drone quickly brought the inhabitants of Landing to the lab where the eggs were resting. Gasps and exclamations of surprise swept the crowd at their first sight of the gently rocking eggs.

The candidates, each wearing a fresh white tunic, were quickly assembled; those meant for fighting dragons in one semi-circle, the girls hopeful of Impressing one of the queens in a group around the queen eggs. Soon, the eggs began to break open, the hatchlings struggling to emerge from their shells. David Catarel Impressed Polenth; Peter Semling Impressed Gilgath; Tarrie Chernoff Impressed Porth; Shih Lao Impressed Firth; Otto Hegelman Impressed Shoth; Paul Logorides Impressed a brown; Jerry Merce Impressed Manooth; Nyassa Clissmann Impressed Milath. Night falls and Marco Galliani Impressed Duluth; Kathy Duff Impressed Amalath; Nora Sejby Impressed Tenneth; Catherine Radelin-Doyle Impressed Singlath; Alianne Zulueta Impressed Chereth; 3 other golds Impress.

Amidst all the confusion, we nearly missed seeing Sean Connell Impress a magnificent bronze… and Sorka Hanrahan Impressed the last and largest queen.

His voice incredulous, his hands clutching his dragon's head, Sean exclaimed, "His name is Carenath!"

"Her name is Faranth!" Sorka wept, giving her queen's neck a fierce hug.

At the back of the crowd, Admiral Benden and Governor Emily Boll were smiling, pleased by the dragons choices, and relieved to finally have a viable solution for dealing with Threadfall!

In the end, every single dragon egg hatched and paired off with his or her rider. Those not selected were clearly disappointed, but their manners improved when our Dragonriders reminded them that this was only the first Hatching. There would be many more to come… and many more chances to Impress.

During this frenetic period, information exchange regarding the manufacture and construction of the sled power cells continued at its own frantic pace. It took a lot of patience on both sides before Fandarel and his smiths were finally able to produce a working power cell of their own making. Once that milestone was reached, the scientists and technicians from Admiral Benden's reality helped our people refine their manufacturing techniques.

Seven months after Impressing Carenath, Sean took his first flight adragonback. The weyrlingmaster even praised Sean on how well the dragon harness he made was constructed.

Unfortunately, just like what happened at this time in our timeline, one month after Sean's first dragonflight, Mount Picchu started to smoke, warning the residents of Landing about a possible eruption. Three days later, Admiral Benden and Governor Boll announced plans to relocate the colonists to the caves discovered at Fort in the northern continent. Having overheard Chlorith's comment that day, I knew she would be disappointed by the development.

But that wasn't the only troubling development we faced. In the midst of repairing a broken leg back at Robinton Cove, I suddenly got a frantic call from Rill.

"Dana, it's gone!" she called on the satphone.

"What's gone?" I wondered, concerned by the urgency in her voice. "Slow down! What are you talking about?"

"The rift!" she exclaimed, verging on panic. "A couple of our people went through to speak with Admiral Benden's technicians. When another group tried to follow, it wasn't there! The rift between our two realities is gone!"

"Shards!" I cursed.

"Dana, what are we going to do?" Rill begged, her voice breaking. "How do we get our people back?"

"Easy, Rill," I deliberately spoke. "Remember, our dragons discovered their quantum ergokinesis ability. We can still jump _between_ to that alternate reality to rescue our friends. It just means a longer jump and the use of spacesuits to do it."

"Why now of all times!" Rill complained, clearly frustrated.

"The multiverse is a dynamic place, Rill," I sighed, also disappointed by this development. "Guess our free pass between realities had a time limit. Just no one bothered to tell us."

"Poor timing, if you ask me," Rill chuckled. "Okay, I'll work on getting the rescue team together. Later!"

I finished repairing that holder's broken leg and sent him on his way. Then, I found Ryeena and filled her in on what happened. After that, I put in a call to the Benden leaders to apprise them of the loss of the gateway.

"That's going to make it harder jumping _between_ if we want to keep up the information exchange," Lessa sighed once I'd filled them both in. "Shaffit! Just when Fandarel and his smiths were finally starting to catch on and turn out some working power cores for the sleds!"

"Which, if I know our good Mastersmith," I chuckled, tapping my knuckles on the tabletop, "he will continue to fine tune the procedures and manufacturing techniques to 'improve their efficiencies'!"

"Think they'll make it, Dana?" F'lar asked, referring to the survival of Admiral Benden and the other colonists of that reality.

"They have a much better start than the colonists of our reality had, Weyrleader," I replied. "I'm sure they'll be just fine!"

Chapter 10 - A Tragedy Inverted (Elli's P.O.V.)

A Turn had passed since the Hatching. I was now 53, and I was beginning to have heart palpitations. G'narish was much more worried about this than I was. At 64, he still enjoyed vigorous health. You wouldn't have known he was 64, except that he bragged about it incessantly whenever I complained about my old age.

Dana was still pretty shaken up by the loss of the rift, but that didn't stop us from using our dragons to go _between_ and maintain our trade of information.

I was having trouble breathing again, something that hadn't occurred since my arrival on Pern. But this time, I wasn't grunting whenever I breathed out. I was just plain short of breath whenever I overexerted myself.

"We need to get you to the hospital," G'narish said firmly after one such episode.

We were in Admiral Benden's reality, manufacturing new power packs for the sleds, and I wanted to finish what I'd started.

"You're not gonna use a sled anyway!" G'narish pointed out. "I understand you might want something for when Chlorith's in clutch, but you can't see to drive it. You can always do what queen riders have always done in the past."

"You're so hidebound!" I laughed good-naturedly, but then was caught by another spasm in my chest, which brought on another breathing attack.

"I'm taking you right now!" G'narish commanded. "Put that power pack down!"

He gave me no choice as he took it bodily out of my hands, scooped me up into his arms, and carried me off to Chlorith. I had the feeling that passersby were staring shamelessly at us as he ran with me in his arms. Carrying me seemed to put no strain on him whatsoever. He ran full out, depriving me of even more breath as I fought the weight that pressed in on me from all sides. I was suffocating, yet I determined to keep calm, as though nothing was happening.

"Shards! I have to take you _between_!" G'narish all but sobbed. "I can't treat you here! You gotta get to Dana's, and now!"

He put me on Chlorith's back and strapped me into the harness as I couldn't do it myself.

"Good thing you left your spacesuit on!" G'narish wept, giving into his tears.

I slumped over in my seat, and Chlorith desperately transferred _between_ before she'd even gotten off the ground. Gyarmath followed suit, sobbing at the top of his lungs.

"What's going on?" demanded Dana as Chlorith and Gyarmath materialized out of thin air literally at her shoulders.

"Elli!" G'narish cried, collapsing on Gyarmath's back, sobbing helplessly.

I could hear the exchange very faintly, but I could not respond. That weight really had a hold of me now!

"She was trying to assemble a power pack for a sled when it hit her!" G'narish moaned, tears pouring down his face. "I think it's her heart. Oh, save her, please, save her!"

With the strength of a woman who used to be a man, Dana unstrapped me and lifted me off Chlorith's back before carrying me into the hospital.

"No, Chlorith, don't go _between_ yet!" she screamed, and that brought me to my senses, though the weight was worse than ever.

I knew I couldn't talk, but I could still think, and I reached out to Chlorith with my mind.

_No, my love, don't go yet. I just want to sleep. I'm not gonna die!_

_Stay here, Life mate!_ Chlorith cried desperately. _Stay here! I'll die if you do, and I'm too young to die yet!_

I couldn't laugh, but I forced a mental chuckle as Dana ran over me with her scan pad.

"The main artery next to the aorta on the left side dissected, and you're having a heart attack," Dana said, trying… and failing… to sound dispassionate. "I'm gonna have to give you a Double bypass."

She ran her scan pad over me once again, then let it linger on my heart.

"I can't guarantee you'll make it through this, Elli. Hardly anyone survives this type of heart attack."

"My mom did," I argued. "She was given an hour to live after the operation, and she's still here!"

"You shouldn't talk, but I'm curious to know when this took place."

"1995, Earth adjusted time," I grunted back, still trying to get rid of the awful weight on my chest.

She injected me with an IV containing fellis juice, and I knew no more until I awoke in considerable pain in both chest and groin.

"Numbweed!" I cried weakly. "Gimme some numbweed!"

"This is internal pain, not external," Dana said sadly. "I'll give you a hypospray. That'll cure it without putting you back to sleep. If you wanna go to sleep, I can give you more fellis."

"I wanna go home," I said. "I wanna go back to Honshu with G'narish and Chlorith."

"They're both here, dear heart," said Dana gently. "G'narish hasn't left your side since he brought you here. He saved your life."

It was then that I became conscious of something wet falling on my forehead. I put up a hand to wipe it away, and almost socked someone in the face.

"Oops, sorry! Are you okay?"

"You'll be okay!" G'narish cried with relief and buried his face in my neck.

"You'll have to stay in the hospital for a week or so," Dana explained, setting her scan pad aside, "but you should be able to make a full recovery. I don't know how much of your heart is gone, but you should be able to compensate for it."

"How did you manage it?" I demanded, awestruck. "Mom only had 35 percent of a heart for as long as she lived. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure shortly after coming here." Changing the subject, I asked, "How are the dragons?"

"They decided to set up quarters in the region that is Fort Weyr in our reality," Dana replied, some relief evident in her voice. "Sean has established himself as Weyrleader, as we knew he would, and since Sorka's his wife, she's senior Weyrwoman. The dragons are only a year old, but they're growing at a spectacular rate. Our idea was indeed a good one."

"Perhaps we should leave them alone now to develop?" I asked. "I don't want our realities to merge the way ours did."

"I told you there's very little risk of that happening!" Dana cried impatiently. "Remember, their Kitti Ping died in Threadfall trying to create bacteriophages, and they'll only have a single pass! They didn't even need to create the grubs, another difference between realities. They may have trouble with comets, so we'll give them the idea of constructing observatories in the north and south, just as we're doing, but their reality is too different from ours to worry about merging. So, relax!"

"Not to mention the temporal difference," Ryeena added.

She had another glass of fellis juice for me to drink if I wanted it, and I most certainly did. I awkwardly placed an arm about G'narish's shoulders, reached out with my mind and touched Chlorith, who sighed as she fell asleep, and drank my fellis juice in one gulp.

There had certainly been a lot of upheaval in the multiverse… our two realities converging, Dana's and mine… not to mention the drastic shift in Admiral Benden's reality with the tragic loss of Kitt Ping. Still, we had come up with a workable solution for their absence of dragons, guaranteeing that the Ancients of that time would survive Threadfall. What would their world look like 2500 years in their future? Maybe we could go there one day to find out! Road trip!

******- The End -*****


End file.
